January 3 – MGM's 1951 Show Boat is presented on television by
NBC for the first time. This marks the first complete network telecast of any version of Show Boat (it had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and as a full-sound musical in 1936).

Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashed into a house on Edgewood Avenue in
Albany, New York, killing 16 of the 47 persons on board, and one person in an upstairs apartment. The impact happened at 8:48 pm after the commuter plane lost power during a snowstorm.

April 29 – The fourth anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair is celebrated with a free concert at a Central Park bandshell, followed by dinner at the Four Seasons. There, 13
Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author,
Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and for using marijuana.

Hong Kong's worst flooding and landslides in recorded history with 653.2 millimetres (25.72 in) of rainfall in the previous 3 days. 67 people die due to building collapses in Mid-levels districts landslide and building collapses, with a further 83 due to flooding-related fatalities. It is the second worst fatality due to building collapses, and the worst flooding in Hong Kong's recorded history.

Dictator
Idi Amin declares that
Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within 3 months.

A huge
solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in U.S. It begins with the appearance of sunspots on August 2; an August 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until
August 10.

September 29 –
Sino-Japanese relations: The Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China is signed in Beijing, which normalizes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the
Republic of China (Taiwan).

October 29 –
Lufthansa Flight 615 is hijacked and threats are made to be blown up if the three surviving perpetrators of the
Munich massacre are not released from prison in West Germany. The demands are accepted, leading to fierce condemnation by Israel.[10]

November 28 – The last executions in Paris, France. Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet – the Clairvaux Mutineers – are guillotined at
La Santé Prison by chief executioner
André Obrecht . Bontems had been found innocent of murder by the court, but as Buffet's accomplice is condemned to death anyway. President
Georges Pompidou, in private an abolitionist, upholds both death sentences in deference to French public opinion.

Vietnam War:
White House Press Secretary
Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning United States troop withdrawals from
Vietnam, due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.

Film director
Stanley Kubrick asks
Warner Bros. to withdraw A Clockwork Orange from exhibition in the UK following death threats made against his family. The film does not receive a public viewing in the country for another 27 years.